iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

NEW: Yesterday, public-health watchdogs announced that Mars, Inc. had pulled the plug on its end of the booze deal, but this morning, Sazerac told me it has "no intention" to pull the existing product off the shelves.

fingers.email

Pop-Tarts "regrets" its BuzzBallz collab. Sazerac? Not so much.

Plus: The Maris theory of the modern middle tier!

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 3h

Few will understand...

jason kelce in three different outfits.

first: cowboy outfit - caption says "whiskey"
second: canadian outfit - caption says "whisky"
third: anglo outfit - caption says "scotch"

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 16h

And that’s… good, right? We’re allowed to say that’s good?

9:41
<
山
•il5G O
E
Tax dodges for the rich are under fire
External
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*
Bloomberg 8:04 PM
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...
Bloomberg.com
Popular tax trades are under fire
For years, the wealthiest American investors have been flocking to
strategies that aim to beat the Internal Revenue Service as well as the market.
Bloomberg has been reporting extensively on how these strategies have gone mainstream.
• Reply
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县

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Internet Dad @whatahellofawaytodad.com · 28/09/2026

Me when the bartender takes my beer bottle when there's half a sip of warm back wash left

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 29/09/2026

SOURCE CALL: If you work/recently worked at Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, I'd love to speak with you. Email dave@dinfontay or text dinfontay.11 on Signal. Anonymity available!

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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 29/09/2026

awoke this morning with a Vision

that diagram showing the SUV blind spot in the front but it's lowly worm driving his little applemobile

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Reposted by Dave Infante

Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 29/09/2026

Wrote about the decline and fall of SCOTUSblog, which used to be the single best resource for Supreme Court stuff, and (thanks to some intervening crimes committed by its co-founder) is now a weird platform for conservative pundits to talk about what a good job the conservative justices are doing

slate.com

It Was the Essential Home of Supreme Court News. Now It’s a Joke. What Happened?

How high-stakes poker brought down a pillar of Supreme Court coverage.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 29/09/2026

That's right bud, it *is* just like your Big Green Egg

meme. illustration of a wojak-style character roasting his own brain on a spit with smoke billowing up from it.

caption reads: how you look using your home cocktail smoker kit from williams sonoma

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 29/09/2026

i’ve seen forms of whiteness you people wouldn’t believe

Photo of a car with a buffalo bills sticker interlocking with a dancing Nancy’s sticker on its back windshield. Looks like a custom job

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

you wouldn't know it but there's a war raging between america's largest non-walmart grocer and some of its most recognizable food/drink brands, and the former has started exercising its nuclear option against the latter. it's kinda nuts!

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

nobody is doing consumer-facing thc ban messaging like total wine. it's self-serving obviously, but pretty straightforward for matters of highly contested and as-yet-unsettled federal law. tipster just fwd'd me this email from the retailer (which has gone all-in on hemp drinks):

graphic that reads "Last Chance to Shop THC-Infused Beverages Due to changes in federal law, THC beverages will no longer be available for sale after 12/10. Shop now while you can."

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

[Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign voice] "Well I think the Republicans know they're going to be *losing* Texas—I can tell!"

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

"Thiel’s destruction of Gawker, a publication that attacked virtually everyone, was the first shot fired in this era’s remarkably successful war against the free press. The war itself is not new. It’s just that today’s iteration of it is so very on the nose." — @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social

hamiltonnolan.com

The Free and Unfree Press

Journalism, and its adversaries.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

One of the 250 stores closed nationwide was Richmond's location on North Robinson, which had gone union. @sbworkersunited.org Richmond is raising money to help the abruptly laid-off baristas make rent: www.gofundme.com/f/support-ri...

Ramona, a Shift Lead and partner of over 7 years from the North Robinson location, gave her reaction to the
HTS ARE
sudden news of their store's closure: QUEER
HTS
"I am heart broken and shocked at the sudden news of our stores closure. After six straight weeks of having record breaking customer reviews and our sales rising more than ever, learning that our store will be closed was insane. Our team has been blossoming and growing in their roles, exceeding expectations. I had tried to transfer due to an upcoming move for over 6 months and was told I was out of luck and would need to stay at my store just for our store to be closed unexpectedly.
Its left my sister homeless and risks my security and my ability to keep a roof over our heads. We barely make enough to make ends meet and so many of my teammates live check to check."
"To have our livelihoods ripped from us with no warning while blocking multiple partners from transferring over the past few months, it's left us without resources. We stood up with our community to fight for living wages, a right to have a workplace, and to finalize a contract all of which our community came out and showed up for in solidarity. I feel our community is being punished as are we, for our resilience, for our strength, and our volume, when we all stand together they can't ignore us. We can't let it end here."
We are raising funds to help ensure none of the baristas from the North Robinson store have to face the worst after having their work and stability taken from them right before the end of the month.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

1. Buy cute possum stickers illustrated by a real (and really talented!) human person, not AI. 2. Support @chlookout.bsky.social's independent journalism about Richmond's East End. 3. ... (What else could you possibly want besides cute possum stickers and independent journalism?)

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

They have a scanner at the entrance to CVS that erases one item you came here for from your brain instantly. No one will report on this.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

Stateside Brands and Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed to dismiss their lawsuit over the packaging and branding of the latter’s vodka-spiked hard tea brand, which looks very similar to the former’s. There goes my shot at being called as an expert witness in the dumbest jury trial of all time, I guess.

fingers.email

Surfside v. Skimmers, we hardly knew ye

Plus: The Great Reyes Realignment is on in Colorado!

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

SOURCE CALL: If you work at/with the Happy Dad hard seltzer brand, I'd love to speak with you. Email dave@dinfontay or text dinfontay.11 on Signal. Anonymity available!

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

As Sierra Nevada approaches its fifth decade in operation, it's taking a couple big, ambitious swings at growing its portfolio beyond its core offerings. At @vinepair.com, I laid out the opportunity—and the imperative, and the risks—in the venerable first-wave brewer's expansion.

vinepair.com

The Bull Case for Sierra Nevada’s Under-the-Radar ‘Hype Brewery’ Line

A problem — the problem? — for first-generation craft breweries is as follows. 1. Everybody knows your iconic beer. 2. Everybody loves your iconic beer. 3. Nobody buys your iconic beer. We have contem...

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

I think we should subsidize neighborhood bars to insulate them from vagaries of the market because they serve vital, unremunerative functions as local gathering spaces. [Stephen A. Smith voice] HOWEVER! We do not currently toil under that economic regime.

fingers.email

People need "community." Bars need a business model

Plus: Revisiting “the marketing of no marketing”!

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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 28/09/2026

NEW: After we published an investigation into Brown Brothers Media, a company that buys struggling news sites and turns them into AI-powered content mills, we got a tip that completely gobsmacked me: one of the brothers has extensive connections to Ghislaine Maxwell futurism.com/artificial-i...

futurism.com

You Know Those Three Brothers Who Buy Struggling News Sites and Turn Them Into AI-Powered Content Farms? It Turns Out One of Them Has Extensive Connections to Ghislaine Maxwell

Ideapod, a cornerstone brand of Brown Brothers Media's AI empire, has deep ties to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026

jasmine sun, the former substack staffer turned atlantic contributor? licking oligarch boot at an embarrassing beltway cocktail party? i don't believe it... there must be some mistake...

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I work at the newspaper and just wrote The Great Awokening is over, I’m both 79 and 12 years old and make 260,000 dollars a year from a man who sent Katy Perry into space on a rocket ship. As you can see, everyone else is the problem.

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Reposted by Dave Infante

Snowden St. @snowden.st · 28/09/2026

in the future, this is what virtue signaling will look like

man in a contraption of no real purpose, but seems to have a lot of competing signals.

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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

People say our best days are behind us, but I say America is at the beginning of a new golden age.

Liquid Death/Mr Beast peanut butter cup-flavored seltzer collab

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 27/09/2026

Samuel Patterson, the full-time liaison to Richmond City Council President Cynthia Newbille, sent me and nine other people a random email this afternoon about a meeting that she is apparently holding on Wednesday in which he misspelled his own name.

Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2026 1:45 PM
Subject: The Last 7th District Code Refesh
Community Meeting-Tuesday, September 29, 2026 @ 6:00PM
Just a reminder: Councilwoman Cynthia
Newbille will host the last 7th District Code Refresh Meeting on this Tuesday, September 29, 2026 @ 6:00PM. The meeting will be held at the Henry Marsh Elementary School-located @ 813 North 28th Street, in the Auditorium. If you get a chance, please pass tis information on to others.
Thanks, Sam Patteron-Council Liaison
Sam.patterson@rva.gov
804-241-7544
804-646-3012
« Reply all
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 27/09/2026

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 27/09/2026

op-eds from cops should not be covered by the first amendment

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 27/09/2026

🚨 FINGERS 5TH PAID-IVERSARY DAY 6 OF 5 🚨 Sale extended until midnight tonight!!!! Score half-off before it's actually gone-gone: www.fingers.email/upgrade?offe...

💸 Score 50% off Fingers before it’s gone!

To celebrate half a decade since activating paid subscriptions, I’m offering half off paid subscriptions:
50% off for 1 year

50% off: Upgrade to an annual subscription for just $40 for the whole year (regularly $80)! HUGE SAVINGS!

5 days only: After that, the discount expires, because I can’t afford to do this forever! EXTENDED UNTIL 11:59PM TONIGHT!

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 27/09/2026

the phrase “substack phrenologist” just flashed violently across my field of vision

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Gef the Toking Mongoose @geftokingmongoose.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

this is who you had to buy weed from before legalization

Still from the first teenage mutant ninja turtles showing Ralph in his very effective disguise he used to go see critters at the theater

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Reposted by Dave Infante

Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 26/09/2026

we need to make more goofy-ass novelty water towers again, bring *that* back instead of Nazism and eugenics

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 26/09/2026

"'Team,' Porter wrote in a 9:53 a.m. email. 'I am getting error messages from Kubra.' [...] 'I’ve received about 80 of these emails,' Porter wrote seven minutes later, just as DPU’s celebratory news release was going out."

richmonder.org

Emails: Amid public celebration, data glitches were piling up during DPU billing system transition

The data issues were causing several problems, according to internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 26/09/2026

genuinely surprised that fox news hasn’t figured out a way to tie this back to the “establishment dem hr lady” discourse and/or their beloved “latte-sipping liberal” caricature yet

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 26/09/2026

is this an elaborate euphemism for the separatist movement or

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 25/09/2026

making friends as an adult is hard. for example they may like hamilton

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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 25/09/2026

"china is charging their cars in less time than it takes you to fill up your F-150" is the kind of banal jingoism i always assumed would get us finally kicking it up a notch on serious infrastructure buildout but we were a lot more directly addicted to gasoline in addition to racism than i thought

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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 24/09/2026

Imagine Jon Taffer rolling up to the Western Mass lesbian bar

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Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 25/09/2026

I’m sorry, but if you bring an iced coffee - or any damn beverage at all - to a job interview, I will shoot you in the face. I will shoot you dead in your fucking face.

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